Pipeline Politics.

February 23, 2016

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The conservatives in Ottawa have done a great job of politicizing and confusing Canadians on the issue of pipelines. Their motion a few weeks back calling for the unequivocal support of the Energy East has done a disservice to Canadians and Albertans by misleading us as to what it would have accomplished: nothing.

This government understands that we need to get our product to tidewater. In the 10 years of the previous government, we saw nothing but disappointment on this file, mostly because of a deeply flawed process lacking entirely in meaningful consultation.

For success, we need a process that allows for communities, first nations and people who are concerned about the environment to take part. We now have one in place and I truly believe we are on a path to get our product to market with science, reason and common sense. To prejudge this process would jeopardize it, and once again we would face a loss of public trust.

There was a time three years ago when the European Union was one vote away from saying no to Canadian oil. What we are doing now is showing the world that we have a government who recognizes that climate change is real and that we are committed to having conversations at the community level, to build public trust in our approach. This is how we will move forward in a thoughtful manner to ensure success for our industry in the long run.

The oil and gas industry is not just important to Calgary, it is also important to Alberta and it is very important to the whole country. I applaud the government for addressing this issue in the early days of their mandate and for moving forward on a credible process that will see the results for the industry we have been waiting on for almost a decade

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